Foursquare finally launches Swarm on Windows Phone 8.1 [Updated]

Swarm, a new check-in service from Foursquare, is coming out today for Windows Phone. Teased a few weeks ago on the Foursquare blog, the app lets you see where you friends are and then to check into those places. Swarm is not exactly replacing Foursquare, which is focusing on 'discovery' going forward, and it too should have a Windows Phone refresh in the near future according to the Foursquare Twitter account.

The big focus for Swarm over its predecessor is social, as features like traditional mayorships and the points system get dropped in exchange for seeing where your friends are for the evening. Now you can be mayor of a location, but only amongst your friends and not the rest of the world. Users will also still get Insights aka knowing how many times they have checked into a location. Finally, stickers. Yes, if you thought junior highschool was over, you would be wrong as Stickers play a significant role in Swarm.

As we described it back in May:

"While Foursquare has been used for sharing where you are for years, Swarm aims to facilitate meet-ups with friends more easily by letting you broadcast where you're going next and what your friends' plans are. Meanwhile, the original Foursquare app will be changing a little bit to be more focused on venue discovery and reviews."

The service so far has received mixed results, and it is not clear if users will make it the next-big thing or a failed departure from the traditional Foursquare system.

Regardless, you can now download Swarm and try it yourself.

Update: Swarm has already picked up its first update a few hours after launching for Windows Phone. You'll now find version 1.0.0.5 of Swarm in the Windows Phone Store. The quick update fixed an issue where some languages couldn't check in.